believe in make believe

There’s Only Alice

2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the first telling of Lewis Carroll’s iconic Alice in Wonderland. What better way to mark this occasion than with a beautiful new reprint of both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass?

My good friend and very talented textiles artist Sarah Grant has organised a project that will see a different artist take on a different chapter of Wonderland or Looking Glass, to illustrate in their own unique way. The idea is that this will result in very differing styles between chapters. The resulting books will be sold through Print on Demand and any profits made will go to an as-yet-undecided charity of the project’s choice.

I’ve seen some of the artwork that’s been produced already and I can say that this is a must-have for any Alice fan, and all for a good cause too.

Due to some artists dropping out there are currently still a few chapters up for grabs, so if you are an artist who would like to get involved in the project and illustrate a chapter (and we’re talking any style, any medium – we have people currently working in both crochet and cake so your imagination really is the limit!) then please do drop me a comment on this post and I’ll put you in touch with Sarah.

The deadline for artwork submissions is June 4th and the book aims to be published by July 4th. There is also talk of a possible coinciding touring small exhibition of work from the book, I’ll give updates as soon as I hear them!

Wow, how can I have not seen your artwork before?! It looks awesome! And yeah, there’s tons of different styles in the book already so I’m sure Sarah will love it too. I’ll drop you an email with contact details!

I would love to participate! I just have one quick question… Would it be ok to make mine in comic form? Either adapting a snip of the chapter in a one-page or deviating a little with the book’s characters and scenes…
Anyway, I’d love to know more, if my style works for you :)

Your comics look lovely, such a unique, vintage-y feel to them! As far as I know (and bearing in mind this isn’t my project, I’m just helping to publicise it) it would be excellent to have a chapter in comic form (someone else is doing one chapter as a manga) but the whole chapter text will be reproduced for every chapter. I’ll pass your details onto the project organiser though and she’ll be able to tell you more than I can! Thanks for your interest! :-)

Sounds like a fabulous project! I have always had a twisted fascination with Alice, particularly since my art history professor in college showed us some of the Lewis Carroll photography. Dirty old man.

Oh wow, your stuff looks fantastic, I especially like ‘The burden is too great’ – how you use the ink blooms combined with the line drawing is really effective. I’ll pass on to the project co-ordinator that you’re interested and she can get in touch with you, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled!